[231] Nobel economics winner, MTSU alumnus James M. Buchanan dies

Nobel Prize-winning economist and MTSU alumnus Dr. James M.
Buchanan died Wednesday morning in Blacksburg, Va., family members said. He was
93.

Buchanan, a 1940 graduate of Middle Tennessee State
University and a Rutherford County, Tenn., native, received the 1986 Nobel Memorial
Prize in Economic Sciences for his leadership
in developing the publicchoice
theory of economics.

Of receiving the prestigious Nobel award, Buchanan once
wrote: “If Jim Buchanan can get a Nobel Prize, anyone can. Recognition and
acceptance of this simple truth are very important.”

Buchanan is the only MTSU alumnus to win the honor.

“The University mourns the loss of Dr. James Buchanan, whose
legacy as a scholar in economics, Nobel laureate and educator will live on as
the namesake of our most prestigious academic honor, the Buchanan Fellowship,”
said MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee.

“Dr. Buchanan, born in rural Rutherford County, always
treasured his Tennessee roots and was a proud alumnus of our University. His
passion for economic theory was ignited by a professor on our campus and his
generosity to MTSU has allowed many more students to find their calling.

“His continued involvement and connection to this University
brought honor to our institution. We are forever in his debt.”

A stridently independent thinker, Buchanan earned the Nobel for
“his development of the contractual and constitutional bases for the theory of
economic and political decision-making.” In the economics discipline, his
contribution is known as the field of Public Choice, which brings the tools of
economic analysis to the study of public decision making.

His book, “The Calculus of Consent: Logical Foundations of
Constitutional Democracy,” which he co-authored with Gordon Tullock, is
considered a classic work on public choice theory.

After he was awarded the Nobel Prize, Buchanan continued to
write and lecture on his interests around the world into his 94th
year. He lived in Blacksburg, Va., and was married to the late Anne Bakke
Buchanan, who died in 2005.

Buchanan spent much of his academic career in Virginia with tenures
at the University of Virginia; Virginia
Tech, where he established the Center for Study of Public Choice; and George
Mason University, to which he and the Center for Study of Public Choice moved
in 1983 and from which he retired in 2007. He also taught at the University of
Tennessee-Knoxville, Florida State University and UCLA.

In 1997, MTSU
established the Buchanan Scholarship in his honor to recognize top students —
known initially as Buchanan Scholars. When visiting MTSU in 1997 to
address the first group of Buchanan Scholars, he shared these words of
encouragement:

“Economics, the discipline that was to become my scientific
home, requires expository writing skills, logical structures of analysis, and a
grounding in ultimate reality. And political economy, the branch of moral
philosophy from which economics springs, requires philosophical coherence. I
came away from Middle Tennessee with all of these …”

In 2006, McPhee
established the Buchanan Fellowship program in the University Honors College
intended to attract top scholars from across the state and country. Only
20 applicants each year are selected as Buchanan Fellows, the highest academic
award given to an entering MTSU student.

Rutherford County author and MTSU emeritus professor in
economics Reuben Kyle will soon release a book entitled “From Nashboro to the
Nobel Prize: The Buchanans of Tennessee,” with proceeds to go to the Buchanan Fellows
program.

The grandson of Tennessee Gov. John P. Buchanan, James M.
Buchanan grew up on a Depression-era farm in the Gum community of Rutherford
County. He attended Buchanan School, which was named as such because it was
built on land once part of the Buchanan family farm.

In his book of personal essays, “Better Than Plowing”, the
down-to-earth Buchanan points out that his family’s humble roots instilled
within him a strong work ethic — he earned money for college books and fees by
milking cows — that set the stage for his distinguished career.

Buchanan graduated in 1940 from what was then Middle Tennessee
State Teachers College with majors in mathematics, English literature and
social science. He went on to a graduate fellowship at the UT-K and an
economics fellowship at Columbia University.

Duty to country then called during World War II, with Buchanan
entering officer training in the U.S. Navy ROTC program, eventually serving on
the staff of Adm. Chester Nimitz in Hawaii.

Following his Naval service in the Pacific, Buchanan earned
his doctorate from the University of Chicago.

The prolific scholar and author would serve later as the
advisory general director of the Center for Study of Public Choice at George
Mason University in Fairfax, Va., where he also served as a distinguished
professor emeritus.

Speaking at the MTSU spring commencement in May 2000,
Buchanan challenged graduates to question the day’s political leadership, which
seemed to lack the Middle Tennessee values he held so dear.

“An open politics makes no distinction between the Ivy Leagues
and the bush leagues when it comes to telling us what we want our government to
do. The people, yes, but all the people, treated as equals, and not some more
equal than others. Along with this attitude, there is an abiding mistrust in
allowing others, no matter whom, to control too many elements of our lives.”

During Buchanan’s visit to campus in 2000, then-MTSU
President James Walker made Buchanan the third recipient of the MTSU
President’s Award, which recognizes those who have distinguished themselves
through exemplary service to MTSU; extraordinary contributions to education,
the community, or society; or remarkable professional achievement.

Buchanan is survived by two sisters, Lila Graue of
Fayetteville, Ark., and Elizabeth Bradley of Pearland, Texas, as well as three
nephews, Doug Graue, Jim Whorley and Jeff Whorley.

Nobel economics
laureate and MTSU alumnus Dr. James Buchanan speaks to MTSU graduates at the
May 2000 commencement ceremony. Buchanan, a Rutherford County native, died
Wednesday in Virginia. He was 93. (MTSU file photo)

In this file photo,
Nobel economics laureate and MTSU alumnus Dr. James M. Buchanan, third from
right, joins the celebration of the inaugural class of

the Buchanan Fellows,
the MTSU University Honors College program for 20 incoming freshmen that
includes four years’ paid tuition, special seminars and academic opportunities.
Joining Buchanan in cutting the cakes are MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee,
center, surrounded by Buchanan Fellows and supporters. (MTSU file photo)

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